Israeli Folk Group HaBanot Nechama is Ready to Comfort America Next

HaBanot Nechama's soulful, acoustic songs revel in femininity. Layers of lush vocals, in a fluently shifting mix of English and Hebrew, dance over lurching reggae rhythms and finger-snapping folk. These ladies are feisty — maybe a little gypsy in spirit — but they also seem sweet.

San Diego CityBeat is San Diego's Real Alternative Newsweekly publication. CityBeat is published every Wednesday with a weekly circulation of 44,000. San Diego CityBeat has earned strong community readership by reflecting the diverse area it serves. The distribution area includes...

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Stifle your groans and suppress that grimace. Sure, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart may be the most emo-ish band name in history. And, yeah, their Belle & Sebastian-esque cover art and cutesy band members are as twee as kittens sliding down rainbows. So, what does that make them -- tweemo? Thankfully, no.

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For Jared Armijo-Wardle and Cesar Zuñiga to have made it this far seems a fair example of their passion and commitment to the music they play: a lovely and introspective blend of American indie-rock and the regional Mexican music that Cesar Zuñiga grew up listening to.

Eliza Rickman just might be a ghost, or, at the very least, a medium channeling vibes from days of yore. That’s not to say the chanteuse is only slanging rehashed classics in the vein of Madeleine Peyroux, it’s just that there’s a decidedly old-timey, almost spooky, air to what she’s doing.

Five years after the last Preston School of Industry album was released, Scott Kannberg is ready to present his fans with an album full of material that sounds nothing like his previous bands' output. He's back to being Spiral Stairs, but this time, there's not as much to joke about.